Given the significant amount of information available over packet-based networks and the ease with which such information can be delivered wirelessly to mobile users, significant efforts have been made to provide information to mobile users based on their relative locations. Location-based information services may provide information such as advertising for local businesses, providing directions, or providing other information based at least in part on the location of the user.
Despite the apparent usefulness of such location-based services, these services have yet to gain popularity. One hindrance to the acceptance of location-based services has been the relative inaccuracy of cellular-based tracking techniques used to determine the location of the user. Cellular systems may use triangulation techniques among proximate based stations, or may simply identify the location of the user based on the base station currently serving the user. The triangulation and base station identification techniques for determining user location are unable to provide a relatively high degree of resolution for location determination. In mot instances, the location of the user can only be determined at best within 50 meters or more, depending on the layout of the cellular network. With such poor resolution in determining a user's location, the association of services with a particular location is very limited.
Other location-determining systems incorporate Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment in the mobile terminal. Unfortunately, the addition of more accurate positioning equipment to mobile devices is expensive and often requires extensive upgrades to the cellular network to take advantage of the more accurate positioning information. Accordingly, there is a need for an efficient and effective way to provide location-based information to mobile users. There is a further need to provide a way to determine the location of the mobile user with greater accuracy, such that the location-based information provided to the mobile user is more specific to the actual location of the mobile user.